Goodman Games Gen Con Annual VI

Since 2013, Goodman Games, the publisher of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic has released a book especially for Gen Con, the largest tabletop hobby gaming event in the world. That book is the Goodman Games Gen Con Program Book, a look back at the previous year, a preview of the year to come, staff biographies, and a whole lot more, including adventures and lots tidbits and silliness. The first was the Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book, but not being able to pick up a copy from Goodman Games when they first attended UK Games Expo in 2019, the first to be reviewed was the Goodman Games Gen Con 2014 Program Book. Fortunately, a little patience and a copy of the Goodman Games Gen Con 2013 Program Book was located and reviewed, so since 2021, normal order has been resumed with the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Book and the Goodman Games Gen Con 2017 Program Book.

The Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying looks back over the previous year and specifically Gen Con 50 which took place in 2017. It also looks back to classic tournament scenarios such as S1 Tomb of Horrors and Goodman Games’ own Dungeon Crawl Classics #13: Crypt of the Devil Lich—more recently updated for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics. Thus, Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying marks a change in format and focus. This is not upon the most recent releases from Goodman Games, but upon a big tournament scenario that was run at Gen Con 2017, ‘The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying’. This is a big, three session dungeon—or rather, set three dungeons—designed to be played by teams of Fourth Level Player Characters with seven pre-generated characters being provided to all teams participating in the scenario. The scenario concerns the fate of one of the Seven Immortal Sorcerers of Lemuria, known as Thakulon the Damned, who attempted to use his ancient knowledge for his own ends, and as a consequence, was torn asunder by the Gods of Creation, and his body and soul scattered to the Nine Worlds. His heart continued to beat, and so the ‘Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying’ was placed within the vaults of three prison tombs, with the gods of Neutrality, Law, and Chaos, taking it turn to create these prison tombs in an attempt to keep out raiders or reavers. The result was a set of tombs protected by magic, puzzles, and traps designed to thwart at least, if not kill, the curious and the unwary and the foolish. This set-up informs the three rounds of the scenario and tournament. In the first, the Player Characters will explore ‘The Halls of Law’, followed by ‘The Trials of Neutrality’, and finishing with ‘The Vaults of Chaos’. These are by design linear, but in each and every case are detailed, often fiendishly so, and really will challenge both players and their characters. Not only that, but the seven seven pre-generated Player Characters are also balanced according to Alignment. So two Lawful, three Neutral, and two Chaotic.

As a tournament scenario, each of the three stages in ‘The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying’ is designed to be played in a four-hour slot. That is, of course, if the players and their characters are exploring the dungeons in an optimal manner, making best use of their time and resources. This does not mean that their progress is on a tight schedule, but rather that they should not get too distracted. There are some great puzzles and traps and the whole affair is highly inventive from start to finish.

As the players and their characters proceed through the three dungeons, their progress is ticked off on score sheets, whose totals would be counted up at the end of each round to determine which teams would go on to the next stage. Scoring was handled by surviving and achieving objectives within each stage, so that ends mattered more than the means, which in earlier designs might have meant that the players and their characters needed to score and progress by surviving in prescribed ways. Effectively, this frees up the players to work on survival and progression rather than necessarily attempting to determine the exact solution to their immediate problem and so be inventive. Some of the most enjoyable details about the tournament are given in the sidebars which relate the progress of particular teams or deaths of individual Player Characters. In addition to this context and commentary of and upon ‘The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying’, a detailed recap and assessment is provided, along with the tournament results and scoring, scoring sheets for all three rounds, advice for running the tournament, and several handouts that illustrate locations within the three dungeons that contain heavy puzzle elements. Ultimately, of course, the aim of ‘The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying’ is for the Judge to run it for her players and compare their score with those of players and their characters in tournament at Gen Con 50.

The other scenario in the Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying is ‘The Misguided Menace of Georgetown’. This a scenario for First Level Player Characters developed by engineering students from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology at Creativity Con I in 2016. It is short and bonkers, consisting of just eleven locations in and around Georgetown, a village famed for the enormous Lincoln Logs in red, white, and blue that the villagers use to construct its buildings. The inhabitants have a problem—Big George Lincoln. This gigantic eagle has appointed itself the village’s protector and takes his duty all too seriously and all too haphazardly, much to their consternation. The Player Characters are tasked with trying to find a way to stop Big George Lincoln or persuade him to be less assiduous in his duties. The scenario mixes a lot of Americana into its fantasy to silly effect which offsets the wayward of the scenario. Much of this due to the designers having very little experience in creating scenarios, but this frees them to be inventive, and there is no question that ‘The Misguided Menace of Georgetown’ is entertainingly inventive.

The second half of the Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying is dedicated to a look back at 2017. This includes ‘ Building the Doom Gong’ by Wayne Snyder, which explains how he built the Doom Gong, which was intended to be rung every time a Player Character dies in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game at a convention and has since become a fixture of Goodman Games’ convention games. For purchasers from Goodman Games, the guide includes ‘2017 – 2018 mailing label artwork’ attached to every package sent out over the course of the year, plus potted biographies of everyone at Goodman Games done as parodies of G.I. Joe identity cards in ‘G.G. Joe’, entries for the ‘Road Crew Flyer DESIGN CONTEST 2017’, and over one-hundred and fifty photographs taken over the course of the last year from numerous events attended by Goodman Games and the the Goodman Games Judges’ road crew. Finally, there is the ‘Luck Token Redemption Table’, which could be rolled upon by the recipient of a Luck Token during play who returns to the Goodman Games stand at Gen Con 50.

Physically, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying is a slim softback book. It is decently laid out, easy to read, lavishly illustrated throughout, and a good-looking book both in black and white, and in colour, much in keeping with the other entries in the series.

The Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying greatly differs from the previous entries in the series with the change to the inclusion of just the two scenarios. Consequently, it is not as interesting, nor likely to have the appeal to a wider audience that earlier volumes with their support of more games had. Yet, the Goodman Games Gen Con 2018 Program Guide: The Black Heart of Thakulon the Undying is very much an interesting book with an entertaining tournament scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game that really will challenge a Judge and her players.